Indie rockers British Sea Power rock out Positivus in 2008. Photo by Anna Hanks.

RIGA — Where’s the EXIT of the Baltic states, the Sziget, the Lollapalooza, the Glastonbury?

Well nothing that large-scale is done in the Baltic states yet, to the disappointment of local music fans and the tourism industry. However, in Latvia Positivus and in Lithuania the B2gether festivals are gaining prominence, with their line-ups looking like Sziget’s in the mid-1990s.

Positivus, held near tiny Salacgrīva on the northern coast, only started in 2007 but this year boasts not the usual has-beens but Muse, who is headlining Glastonbury as well. The line-up also includes gay glam rockers Scissor Sisters, the British trip-hop/rock outfit UNKLE, Northern Ireland’s And So I Watch You From Afar who are supposed to put on a powerful live show and Lithuania’s Happyendless, who do Depeche Mode-style synthrock.

The festival will be held July 16-17 all day. The best way to stay is to bring a tent, and if it’s sunny and you need a break from loud music the beach is close. A two-day ticket with a campsite is a bargain at €45. For more information check the Positivus website.

Meanwhile down in  southeast Lithuania along the Belarusian border in Norviliškės is the camping-oriented B2gether Festival on June 25-27.

Headliners include Australia’s far-out Bowie-esque rockers Empire of the Sun bringing their strange costumes and flamboyant swagger, alternative metal group Skunk Anansie fronted by the edgy, bald “clit-rocker” Skin and Brit rapper Roots Manuva. Local favorites Skamp, Antis, Happyendless and Leon Somov & Jazzu will also perform.

While there’s no nearby beach, B2gether likes to pile on the non-music activities, too and this year there will be a Unification Church-style mass wedding, a pit for mud wrestling, volleyball on an inflatable court, amateur football games, live theater and of course a sauna.

A one-day ticket is 95 litai (€27) while all three days is 140 litai (€40). For more information visit the B2gether website.

Unfortunately for Estonia this year its music festival that brought the biggest names in popular music, Rabarock, will not be held. Rabarock featured the most aggressive line-up of the three festivals, with punk legends The Misfits, thrash-metal godfathers Anthrax and industrial metal rockers Static-X and KMFDM, among others.

However, for the first year since 2005 there will not be a Rabarock festival, which organizers blamed on the Estonian government’s new VAT and the economic recession.

“Due to the ongoing economic depression and the Estonian Republic’s hostile-to-culture policies there will be no Festival Rabarock 2010. Now that the VAT on concert tickets has been raised four-fold despite the waning purchasing power of the general public, we do not deem it possible to organize a festival on par to those arranged in previous years. The decision was not easy, but we will have to take this break in order to greet you all again in 2011,” a statement on the festival website reads.

However, all is not lost for Estonian rock fans desperate for some summer concert action.

The Summer2010 Festival in Tallinn on the Song Festival grounds will be July 14-17, which the Scissor Sisters will headline on the 16th before heading down to Latvia the next evening for Positivus. Electro pop star Calvin Harris will be there and so will Finland’s goth rockers HIM as well as a slew of promising local acts like HU? and Popidiot. Tickets are 450 krooni (€28) for all four days or 95-195 krooni (€6-€12) per day. For more information visit their website here.

Meanwhile on July 31 there will be the Plink Plonk indie rock festival in Tartu, which will have a nice collection of talented unknowns from the U.K. and Estonia. For more information visit their website here.

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